A positive meeting with Heath (confirmed)

[USFan]

A great start.  Let's hope that DW can finish it.

Heath, Woolard Meet

By BRETT McMURPHY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Mar 30, 2007

ATLANTA - Former Arkansas coach Stan Heath met with University of South Florida athletic director Doug Woolard on Thursday about the USF men's basketball position.

"We met and had a good discussion and we'll meet again in the future," Heath said.

Heath, 42, was fired Monday after five seasons at Arkansas. In his six-year coaching career, including one year at Kent State, he reached the NCAA Tournament three times. At Arkansas, he had three top-15 national recruiting classes.

If Heath ends up at USF, there's a chance SEC freshman of the year Patrick Beverley could join him.

"I love it here at Arkansas, but it's going to be hard for me to play for somebody else," Beverley told the Chicago Tribune. "I want to finish up strong in my classes so there won't be any problems if I have to transfer.

"[Heath] is just a good dude who gave me a lot of leeway and allowed me to play my game. That's the kind of coach I like to play for. The new coach may not let me play my game."

The 6-foot-2 Beverley led Arkansas with a 13.9-point average. Out of Chicago's Marshall High, Beverley chose Arkansas over Michigan, UCLA and Wake Forest.

"I'm going to wait until a new coach is named here and then my mom will come down and we'll meet with the coach and athletic director [Frank Broyles]," he said. "I realize if I decide to transfer, [then] Arkansas has to let me out of my scholarship."

Woolard has said he will not comment on candidates during the search process.

Forgot the link...  http://www.tbo.com/sports/bulls/MGBWGXT3WZE.html

[Matt]

sounds real good...

lets hurry up and make the move.

[achiever1911]

From Greg's blog......

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/

March 30, 2007

At last, they meet: Woolard, Heath talk

Here's the coaching update from Friday's paper ...

USF's search for its next basketball coach continues at the Final Four in Atlanta, where former Arkansas coach Stan Heath met Thursday with Bulls athletic director Doug Woolard.

"We had a good meeting," said Heath, fired Monday by Arkansas despite a 20-win season and making the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. "We'll visit some more and have more dialogue in the next few days."

If the Bulls are serious about offering Heath the job, the next step likely would be bringing him to Tampa to tour the campus and facilities and meet with school administrators. Asked if such plans had been made, Heath said "not at the moment."

Heath, who said Thursday that he was "possibly" meeting with other schools in Atlanta, said he would have a better feel for his plans after "things clear up on my end." He has not been publicly linked to any other openings.

Three of the four known candidates who have talked with Woolard  Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall, South Alabama coach John Pelphrey and former St. John’s coach Fran Fraschilla  have taken their names out of consideration since Sunday.

The Bulls seek a replacement for Robert McCullum, who was fired March 9 after four seasons, including a 4-28 record in two seasons of Big East play. Woolard is not commenting on candidates during the hiring process.

And one bonus note: I'm always curious to see how the South Florida vacancy is viewed nationally -- I tend to think of the current midmajor openings as largely unattractive ones, so I figure Kentucky, Michigan, Arkansas, Colorado and Iowa are seen as better jobs, but not much else. But check out this paragraph from Friday's Chicago Tribune, in a story about the slew of coaching vacancies:

"Just six involve high-profile programsâ€â€Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Minnesotaâ€â€and the rest are at places like Chicago State, Georgia State, Hawaii, Iona, Quinnipiac, Radford and Southern Utah."

Well. No love for the Bulls there, at least not the same love given to ... Radford (which got filled last week) or ... Southern Utah? Georgia State actually got Rod Barnes, a solid hire, but I think any job in the Big East is good enough to make it on a list of top openings right now ...

I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen any other media outlets discovering who these other schools are that might be courting Stan Heath. Or at least no outlets that can be seen by the far-reaching eye of Google News ... I leave for the women's Final Four in Cleveland on Friday, so trying to track down this coach gets a little more challenging over the weekend ...

[bulls96go]

if DW can land heath it would be the steal of the century

on the scale of usf hiring CJL, IMO.

[theman123]

Its time to reel him in Doug!

[Bull Dozer]

Its time to reel him in Doug!

Your sig is ill.

[Jewbull]

Stan & Doug need to come back to T Town and watch the Final 4 from the Big East Room

[Guest BasketBull.]

Our AD needs to make this happen. Keep your fingers crossed, Bulls!

The first date went well --the kids are having a second date.  ;D

"We'll visit [date] some more and have more dialogue [hand-holding] in the next few days."

[Bull Matrix]

What I like the most out of Stan Heath is his recruiting. If USF gets him, then both the men and women will have two of the best young recruiting coaches at the helm.

[Omniscientbull]

Basketbull - I think the date went ok.  However, I like someone that puts out on the first date (just joking for any feminist or others that may be offended).  I would've liked to have heard that a visit was scheduled.

I'll try to be patient.